1. Technical Field
This invention relates to telecommunications processing systems. In particular, this invention relates to a flexible and configurable database table driven processing system for determining charge amounts for a diverse array of telecommunications products and services.
2. Related Art
Rapid advances in computer system and telecommunications technology have lead to a vast array of communication services available to the consumer. Such telecommunication services include Internet service, cable television service, cellular phone service, paging service, combined voice and data delivery service, and many other services. Furthermore, most services may be wireless or wireline based.
For each of the many telecommunications products and services, a service provider must determine how to rate the service. Rating is the process through which the service provider determines how much to charge for a telecommunication usage event. For example, when a cellular phone call finishes, a service provider determines how much to charge for the phone call based on many different factors, such as whether the call was a long distance call.
There are many different telecommunications products and services. There are also many different factors which a service provider may want to have influence how much should be charged for each use of a telecommunications service. As a result, there is an immense number of potential combinations of telecommunications services and associated rating functions. Indeed, in the past, service providers had to define, configure, and troubleshoot an extensive array of custom rating functions, assign the rating functions to specific telecommunications products and services, and devote significant time and monetary resources to maintaining and updating the rating functions.
Adding a new rating function often took many days, and sometimes even weeks. At the same time, the telecommunications industry is one which continually improves and evolves its existing products and services, and which frequently introduces new products and services. Accordingly, such delays often limit the introduction, evolution, and improvement of telecommunications products and services.
A need has long existed for an improved rating system for a telecommunications service provider.